Trump's plan to spend on infrastructure leads companies to pitch their products as infrastructure

Gone are the days when federal infrastructure spending was measured in highways, bridges and ports. As President-elect Donald Trump considers a massive new spending plan on public works, policy experts, lawmakers and companies are racing to make the case that infrastructure could include projects such as fast Internet networks, electric-vehicle charging stations, power transmission lines and drinking water systems.

During a conference on infrastructure, Mrinalini Ingram, vice president of smart communities at Verizon Communications, had her own candidates for infrastructure spending: Verizon networking technology embedded in LED street lights and blue-light kiosks where pedestrians in danger can call police. At the same event, Richard Lukas, director of federal grants and program development at the Trust for Public Land, was worrying about the fate of federal grants used to fund a riverside park in Newark, NJ, a three-mile park along an abandoned rail line in Chicago, and a trail and bike system in Cleveland. "Infrastructure doesn't just mean roads and bridges. Infrastructure means a lot of different things to a lot of different people," said Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center. "We have to be confident that we're investing in things with common benefits, not like digging holes. The outcomes have to be consistent with our national priorities."